Sunday, August 16, 2009

Thank God I didn´t break Ollantaytambo

For those who are shy or have weak stomachs, read at your own risk.

I was so worried last night when I came home and the toilet was plugged and the water didn´t come out of any of the spickets. Like many developing countries, the waste water system cannot handle toilet paper. After you are done going potty, you have to toss your paper in the trash basket. Well, as you can imagine this is not an easy habit to get into. I´ve done well about 99 percent of the time. But yesterday, I tossed the paper in the toilet and realized it too late. When I came home and the toilet and spickets didn´t work, I thought for sure I broke the whole system with my 4 squares of paper. I attempted to fix the plumbing by pouring my used laundry water in the back of toilet and fiddling with the parts(see Zoriada, used laundry water is good for something). I also fished out the remains of the paper and threw them in the trash. My efforts were futile. I saw my plans to come back to rent a room from this famliy go down the toilet (pun intended). My imagination went wild; all I could imagine was that I broke Ollantaytambo and this lovely family had no water because of me.

As you know from my blog title, I did not break Ollantaytambo. It just so happens that the water gets shut off frequently at night; this is normal.

What did I learn from this? Worrying is really useless. Most of the time, the things I worry about never come to fruition, like breaking Ollantaytambo. Also, I can handle some pretty gross situations without puking.